• Affinium Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Toronto, said Accium BioSciences Inc., of Seattle, will provide regulatory and analytical services under a U.S. biodefense grant awarded to Affinium. Early this year the company was awarded a $4.8 million, two-year contract from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, an agency of the Department of Defense, to develop antibiotics for treating diseases caused by serious pathogens, including Francisella tularensis.

• Agilent Technologies Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., and Lipomics Technologies Inc., of West Sacramento, Calif., are collaborating to develop research and diagnostic assays combining Agilent's analytical platforms with Lipomics' expertise in biomarker discovery and validation. The assays will focus on metabolic diseases. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• Aileron Therapeutics Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., licensed a metathesis platform from Materia Inc., of Pasadena, Calif., for use in the discovery and development of peptide therapeutics directed at intracellular protein-protein interaction targets. Metathesis catalysts are designed to enable the formation and manipulation of carbon-carbon bonds in the synthesis of new biopharmaceutical products with superior properties, as well as the development of more efficient, low-cost production processes for existing products. Specific terms were not disclosed, but Materia will be entitled to license fees, milestone payments and royalties

• AMDL Inc., of Tustin, Calif., said its China subsidiary, Jade Pharmaceuticals, has set up production and applied for permission to market docetaxel in that country. The company estimates China diagnoses 1.6 million new cases of cancer per year, and docetaxel currently represents about $200 million in sales annually in that country.

• Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., granted to CellNexus LLC nonexclusive rights to use its Argent cell-signaling regulation technology to develop cancer therapies. Ariad gained an equity stake in newly formed CellNexus, which sprung from work at the University of Washington. Ariad also is eligible to receive milestone payments. Products in the partnership will use Ariad's small-molecule dimerizer drug, AP1903, which already has completed a Phase I trial. The initial CellNexus product candidate is a cell therapy designed to prevent and treat anemia in cancer patients, while eliminating stimulation of tumor growth and angiogenesis by erythropoietin.

• Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc., of Needham, Mass., and Select Vaccines Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, entered a collaboration to use Select Vaccines' virus-like particles as a platform technology for development of viral vaccines. Efforts initially will target development of vaccines against epidemic and pandemic forms of influenza. Avant will make an equity investment in Select Vaccines and fund research and development for two years. Select Vaccines also is eligible to receive preclinical and clinical milestone payments, as well as royalties on any resulting sales. Avant also got exclusive rights to apply Select Vaccines' technology to a second target within two years, and a third target within three years.

• Depomed Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., and Biovail Corp., of Toronto have entered into an agreement for Biovail to access Depomed's drug delivery technology to develop up to two products. Biovail will select the products from an agreed-upon list of compounds over the next 18 months. Depomed received a $500,000 up-front fee and will have no development obligations. Biovail also will pay additional fees related to exercise of the license option, the initiation of Phase III trial for each product and upon receipt of regulatory approval of each product. Biovail also will make royalty payments on net commercial sales for products developed.

• Diversa Corp., of San Diego, and Celunol Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., have signed a merger agreement. The combined company will be the first within the cellulosic ethanol industry to possess integrated end-to-end capabilities in pre-treatment, novel enzyme development, fermentation, engineering and project development. The company will continue to pursue market opportunities for specialty industrial enzymes within the areas of alternative fuels, specialty industrial processes and health and nutrition, with a primary focus on enzymes for the production of biofuels. The company will be based in Cambridge, and will have research and operations facilities in San Diego; Jennings, La.; and Gainesville, Fla. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Diversa will issue 15 million shares to acquire the outstanding equity of Celunol. In addition, Diversa will provide Celunol with up to $20 million in debt financing to fund operations prior to the closing, and will assume all debt upon closing. Carlos A. Riva, president and chief executive officer of Celunol, will become the chief executive officer of the combined company and a member of its board of directors. John A. McCarthy Jr., executive vice president and chief financial officer of Celunol, will become the chief financial officer of the combined company. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2007.

• Emergent BioSolutions Inc., of Rockville, Md., said the FDA granted fast-track designation to BioThrax (anthrax vaccine absorbed) as a postexposure prophylaxis against anthrax infection. BioThrax is the only FDA-approved product for pre-exposure prophylaxis of anthrax infection. The company plans to seek FDA approval of BioThrax for use in combination with antibiotics in the postexposure setting. The company is targeting a three-dose regimen given two weeks apart for that indication.

• Forbes Medi-Tech, of Vancouver, British Columbia, is reorganizing its research and development program, including a 20 percent work force reduction in its Canadian staff (primarily R&D) and a move to out-license its cholesterol-lowering compound FM-VPA. In its place, the company will focus on the FM-TP series of compounds targeting metabolic syndrome and underlying disease states such as diabetes and inflammatory lung disease. Company stock dropped 57 percent in December when results of a Phase II trial showed FM-VPA had a good safety profile but failed to meet anticipated levels of LDL reduction. The new R&D focus will be on apoptosis inhibitors, and ACC2 inhibitors in the diabetes space, and VPAC2 agonists in diabetes and inflammatory lung disease. The company said the cost-cutting measures and revenue anticipated from its ingredient business will finance operations through the second quarter of 2008 rather than the end of 2007, as it previously estimated.

• Hatteras Venture Partners, of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said it closed its third venture capital fund, Hatteras Venture Partners III LP, which secured $60 million for seed and early stage companies in biopharma, medical devices, diagnostic products and related fields. The fund size is expected to ultimately be about $100 million.

• Idera Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said preclinical data showed antagonists of Toll-like receptors 7 and 9, used in mouse models of lupus, showed improvement in a number of lupus disease parameters. Data were presented at the Keystone Symposia event in Banff, Alberta.

• Medivir AB, of Stockholm, Sweden, and Guangdong Lantai Viewland Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Guangzhou, China, have entered a licensing agreement for a non-nucleoside HIV reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), MIV-160, which is in late pre-clinical development. Under the terms, Guangdong Lantai will transfer equity to Medivir, as well as paying royalties on sales for oral and topical use of the drug. Guangdong Lantai potentially will develop MIV-160 for an oral treatment regime, a vaginal microbicide and coating of condoms, and will commercialize the drug in China (including Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao). Medivir retains rights to MIV-160 for all other territories.

• Micromet Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., said Morphotek Inc., of Exton, Pa., exercised its option under a 2004 agreement to obtain an exclusive, worldwide license to an antibody targeting an antigen with potential activity for treating certain cancers, including melanoma. Micromet received a payment for the option exercise, and is eligible to receive development milestone payments and royalties on sales. Morphotek is planning to file an investigational new drug application later this year and to start clinical trials in 2008.

• NicOx SA, of Sophia Antipolis, France, announced preclinical results from its August 2004 collaboration agreement with Pfizer Inc., of New York, which is focused on the research and development of nitric oxide-donating derivatives of latanoprost for the treatment of glaucoma. The nitric oxide-donating compound was shown to have an improved ability to lower intraocular pressure in validated preclinical models when compared to Pfizer's latanoprost, the leader in worldwide glaucoma sales, with approximately $1.5 billion of franchise sales in 2006. NicOx previously announced that Pfizer anticipates filing an investigational new drug application with the FDA in the first quarter of 2007, with plans to initiate clinical trials shortly thereafter.

• Pro-Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Newton, Mass., said it requested a meeting with the FDA to discuss data and plans for submitting a new drug application for Davanat, to be co-administered with 5-fluorouracil to treat cancer patients. Davanat is a carbohydrate polymer composed of mannose and galactose. The plan is to filed under Section 505(b)(2) of the U.S. Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act that allows the FDA to approve an NDA submission when data are available from scientific literature or previously have been cited by the agency as the basis for the approval of related drugs.

• Regenetech Inc., of Houston, made its licenses available to stem cell banks for its cellXpansion technology, which expands hematopoietic stem cells for autologous use. To encourage broader use of its technology, Regenetech also will make available research licenses at nominal cost to not-for-profit stem cell research institutions. Additionally, Regenetech has extended a license from NASA's patented human progenitor cell technology for use in stem cell banking based on peripheral or umbilical cord blood sources of stem cells.

• Sigma-Aldrich Corp., of St. Louis, has acquired all of the outstanding shares of Epichem Group Ltd., of Bromborough, UK, to expand its SAFC Hitech business offering. The purchase price of $60 million was paid in cash. Sigma-Aldrich said the acquisition of Epichem's $40 million in annual revenues is expected to help it achieve its growth goals in key high technology markets over the next several years and will be neutral to mildly accretive to earnings in 2007, with no significant initial charges.

• ViaCell Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., entered an agreement under which Invitrogen Corp., of Carlsbad, Calif., will manufacture ViaCell's ViaCyte media. ViaCyte is an investigational product for use with assisted reproductive procedures. The media manufactured by Invitrogen will be used in ViaCell's pivotal clinical trial to evaluate the cryopreservation and thawing of human oocytes. Financial terms were not disclosed.